Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Freedom of Virtue

One of the things I've written about in The Grace of Repentance: Keeping God's Commandments is how to make sure that we can stay within the boundaries of God's commandments and the natural law. Written law is not always consistent to those we find in nature and God's commandments, so then every law that we advocate should be that of natural law because that is what God created. I want to explore the dynamics of temptation and sin; suggesting some ways how evil can be defeated by relying on and building up virtues by improving character.
When things have gone bad in my life, there was always some underlying flaw in my own character that I think that brought on the trouble. If I replay my life, I can see where things that I've said or done that were bad, always came back to cause me more trouble; even if it was years later. I think in God's world, there is some kind of system of payback that he has instituted. Mankind, in my opinion, have a latent knowledge of this, but like a lot of other people, if I ignore this knowledge and then do something wrong, I usually get what I deserve. I have noticed this throughout my life and it has happened so many times, that I know that it cannot be a coincidence. The more I behave myself the better my life becomes. On the other hand, if I start messing up, the conditions of my life will go down the toilet. So I believe there is a cause and effect to a person's actions, and I believe that we should be careful about how we behave so that our lives can be as pleasant and productive as possible.
So, the moral standards we should always adhere to are God's commandments and the natural law.
I believe that all men and women are tempted to break God's laws, but we are not hard-wired to fail at resisting these temptations. The temptations to break the commandments comes from evil spiritual pressures. And it can come in many forms, but usually it comes from an urge to do something evil. If the urge is strong enough, we will break one of the natural laws and then make even more trouble for ourselves. Committing sins I think is like someone who takes recreational drugs and by so doing, brings upon even more trouble upon himself: addition, ruined family and finances, drunkenness, and a whole host of other debaucheries just because he started out with the drugs. I believe the same thing happens with any sin. Once it is committed, the downside or payback comes quickly. So my thinking is that it is easier to simply get rid of the urges to sin that is effective and can be used at any time the temptations arise.
But before I describe how to defeat the urge, I think it is important to understand that when we are tempted, our minds seem to go into some kind of stupor. I could never figure this out, but it is like having a bad dream and I can't seem to get out of it. It is important to understand that the temptation to sin will possibly induce this stupor. It is at this point I try to become more aware of my situation and I then try to make sure that I keep up my guard and get ready to defeat the urge. I start to realize that my mind is starting to go on autopilot when I don't want it that way. It is a strange sensation, but I know that trouble is starting to come my way if I don't actively do something to defeat the temptation, and do it quickly.
Recognizing that temptation is a spiritual event, we are now more positioned to defeat it. Where does the temptation come from? I believe it comes from the Evil One or satanic influences that are designed to destroy the life of men. Men, women, and children are constantly tempted to do evil things and the influence of evil in our lives will destroy life as God intended.
What I do to defeat a temptation is to repeat the specific commandment with which I am tempted to break. I will tell you that the satanic influence will remove itself from you almost instantly. This works for me and I've had other people write to me and say that this works for them as well. I never had thought about it unless I had read it in an early Christian writing that was not in the bible. Sin and evil can be defeated, and the best way to do it is to use the commandments. If someone or something is tempting you with breaking a commandment, then just repeat this commandment and the urge goes away. I wish I had learned this earlier, and I also have to remember to do this myself. It is amazing how I can get distracted on this even though I'm writing about it. I have to be on guard not to be overcome by the demonic stupor.
This is how evil is defeated. It is easy, clean, and very effective. This will also help people control their thoughts and be less susceptible to mind control. Evil induces a satanic stupor, and it is a key element of mind control. Making sure that the mind only accepts truthful things is the only way I know of to preserve the spiritual health of the mind and of the spirit.
The freedom of virtue--doing good things--is much more enjoyable than the bad fruit of evil. The good things that we do are beneficial to our lives. There's no impending payback for our evil deeds. There is no unsettling of our spirits and souls because of the evil we may have done. Life improves as we manage to keep the commandments.
I've mentioned this before regarding anger, but it deserves to be mentioned again. In the Shepherd of Hermas, in Mandate 5 there is a verse that explains what is happening to a person when they start to get angry. When we get the flushed feeling, anger, and then possibly violence can take complete control over a man. So, here, at this point is where we should guard ourselves and not let any angry feelings take control over us. We should be suppressing our angry feelings and not expressing them. When we express our anger, we are in danger of making the whole situation worse. Rather than involve ourselves with anger, it is much better to "stand aloof" from it and let it pass. Knowing that I am being influenced by a demon or an evil spirit, I repeat the commandments in my mind--especially "Thou shalt not kill" and the anger goes away as fast as it came. It really is amazing just how simple and effective this solution works. No need for using psychotic shrinks, who teach just the opposite.
This technique should work on everything that is considered by God as a sin. What's nice about this is that it puts the man back in control of his own mind and soul, while leaving behind the common knowledge of errant information.
In order to be successful in avoiding evil things, it is important to understand that it is essential to actively guard your mind to make sure you can function properly. This needs to be done every day and try to never let in evil things that can twist your mind into thinking about evil things that can never do any man, woman, or child any good. The freedom of virtue is evident in the peaceful existence of a life without evil and stupidity.
Freedom of virtue resides in truth, therefore it makes sense to always test your knowledge and information with the facts. Once you have the facts, you will be able to make more intelligent decisions. Virtue is produced by doing good things within the truth. Good decisions are based upon truthful and accurate knowledge.